Did OpenSecrets.org Foil A Chinese Propaganda Hit?

Tensions between China and the United States have been high lately, particularly since the blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng fled to the U.S. embassy — a drama that current U.S. Ambassador to China Gary F. Locke played a prominent role in defusing.

But Locke’s high-profile role was not appreciated by Chinese authorities, and since the drama began unfolding several weeks ago, he’s been under attack by several prominent government-controlled media outlets.

On Monday, when a commenter asked about Locke’s personal wealth, editors at the Beijing Daily took the opportunity to take another dig at Locke, asking, via Sina Weibo (the Chinese micro-blogging service akin to Twitter): “Won’t Gary Locke please disclose his personal assets?”

But the editors at Beijing Daily were unaware that Locke has disclosed his personal assets, and OpenSecrets.org has them posted. In fact, we have all of his personal disclosure documents going back to 2008.

This fact, however, was not lost on many users of Weibo, and many Chinese bloggers, who immediately began mocking the Beijing Daily for the blunder — and linking to OpenSecrets.org, which saw a significant spike in users from China.

According to the China Media Project, based at the University of Hong Kong, the original post by the newspaper was quickly wiped off the Internet, but not before Weibo users snapped back at the paper with their own quips, including:

“Of course Gary Locke’s personal assets have been disclosed. And what about the assets of those imperial officials [of ours]?”

And:

“Oh, editors and comrades of Beijing Daily, how are you? How tough things are for you. It’s just that the residence of the Ambassador and the cars he rides in are about the image of America. No matter how we try to refine the idea of whether or not Gary Locke is corrupt, there’s the looming issue of our leaders living in Zhongnanhai. And how much more resplendent are those official residences? Why don’t you have a look.”

Speaking of taking a look, today is the deadline for Locke and all other government officials who must file personal financial disclosure forms annually — members of Congress, candidates for federal office and senior congressional staff, for instance — to file new documents, covering calendar year 2011. While candidates for federal office, including presidential candidates, had to file such disclosures within 30 days of declaring their candidacies, they must file again today.

Incumbent House members and senators file with the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate, respectively, as do non-incumbent candidates for those bodies. But lest anyone get their hopes up, the forms won’t actually be available for another month.

The Senate will also be releasing disclosure forms on June 15 — but not electronically. Instead, Congress’ upper chamber will still be releasing sheets and sheets and sheets of paper. The Center will go to Capitol Hill to get the forms, scan them, and begin a lengthy data entry project so we can make Congress’ personal financial information available on our website.

Thanks to the recently-signed STOCK Act, though, this is the last time we’ll have to do that. Next year, the Senate’s financial disclosure forms will finally be digital.

Presidential candidates will file their forms with the Federal Election Commission.

Lawmakers’ assets include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, investment real estate, ownership interests in private companies and large cash accounts. This year, for the first time — also thanks to the STOCK Act — lawmakers will have to disclose mortgages on their personal residences.

Transactions made during the last year are also reported, as are any debts of over $10,000.

In the reports, lawmakers disclose the value of their assets and liabilities in wide ranges, such as $100,000 to $250,000, or $5 million to $25 million. These ranges allow the Center to calculate a minimum and maximum estimate of a lawmaker’s net worth. But they also make it impossible to know the exact value of a lawmaker’s personal finances.

Based on financial information disclosed for calendar year 2010, the Center calculated that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), now the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was once again the wealthiest member of either the House or the Senate, with a minimum net worth of $195 million and a maximum net worth of $701 million.

Locke, as it turns out, probably didn’t need that Starbucks’ discount, if that story is true. His assets are listed as being worth between $1.6 million and $7.9 million, making him the sixth-wealthiest member of the administration.

Russ joined the Center in March 2012 as the money-in-politics reporter. His duties include reporting for OpenSecrets Blog and assisting with press inquiries. Russ has a background in investigative journalism, having worked as a reporter for the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, and he spent five years as a newspaper reporter in New Hampshire. He has a degree in political science from Muhlenberg College and a M.A. in journalism and public affairs from American University.

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Viveca Novak
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